


i just wanna keep calling your name (until you come back home)

by revanchxst (BadWolfGirl01)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Community: fandom5k, Dreamsharing, Established Relationship, Force Bond (Star Wars), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Mess, Pining, Post-Order 66, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 7 Spoilers, The Force Ships It, any fic can be mutual pining if you try hard enough, ish, ish?, mildly, season 7 compliant if you squint, yes look even my established relationships have pining in them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:40:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24576226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadWolfGirl01/pseuds/revanchxst
Summary: “... where are we?” ‘24 doesn’t dare speak above a quiet murmur, afraid that the acknowledgement of Kenobi’s presence might disturb the fragile balance he’s found between good soldiers follow orders and the thread of a whisper saying mine, mine, beloved.“I believe this is a dream,” Kenobi says, thoughtful, musing, the way he always does when faced with something he doesn’t understand, “at least, in a manner of speaking.”In a manner of speaking. “You mean,” ‘24 says, wry, “it’s Force shit you don’t understand?”Traitor, the chip hisses. ‘24 ignores it, as best as he can. It won’t last. He can feel the eye closing already.[or: post-Order 66, Cody and Obi-Wan find each other again, with the help of the Force]
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody & CT-7567 | Rex, CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Bail Organa, past Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 20
Kudos: 495
Collections: Fandom 5K 2020





	i just wanna keep calling your name (until you come back home)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lake (beyond_belief)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beyond_belief/gifts).



> hey Lake! god i really hope you like this, it's kinda a mess and i got it done last second, but i poured all my emotions about these two dumbasses into it! there might end up being a coda posted at some later point because about halfway? three quarters of the way? through i started getting a bunch of Obi-Wan & Anakin/Vader feelings but idk, we'll see. anyway i hope you enjoy it and i had so much fun writing for you! <3

It’s raining outside.

That wouldn’t be all that unusual - it rains on a lot of the worlds CC-2224 visits, on this mission of his, hunting down all surviving Jedi traitors - except ‘24 knows that it wasn’t raining on the last planet he remembers being on, knows he was on a desert world in the dry season. So it _can’t_ be raining.

But there’s a faint pitter-patter on the roof, and grey smudges streak the transparisteel windows-

Windows.

Windows that are most certainly _not_ regulation-thickness, blaster-resistant, small in size to prevent rebels or other hostiles from invading.

This is not a Rep- an Imperial base.

‘24 gets up from the low bed he’s laying on, the skin on his arms pebbling into goosebumps when his bare (nonregulation) feet touch the cool floor. There’s a rug, grey and streaked with blue, spread across the hardwood floor, and he steps onto it, letting the softness of it soothe away the cold. It’s been so long since he’s seen anything like this, since-

_(Soft carpet under his feet, the smell of caf and bacon in the air, absently pulling a soft tan tunic over his head as he pads out into the living room, his cyare shirtless and humming as he stirs something into the eggs on the stove, and his heart fills with so much warmth it seems like it must brim over, because how can one person hold onto this much love?)_

-since nothing. Since he was illegally fraternizing with a traitor.

“This is a new one,” he hears, faint, floating into the room from out in the hallway, a Coruscanti accent as familiar to him as his heartbeat.

The traitor. His old General. A dead man.

‘24 knows he didn’t miss. He didn’t find a body, but that just means-

 _(He’s not-Cody, now, Cody is a far-off concept in the back of his mind, shoved down with his freedom, everything submerged in_ **_good soldiers follow orders,_ ** _but he is Cody enough still, for now, to decide they don’t need to find a body, to send in the confirmation without ever laying eyes on the man who is_ ~~_who cannot be_~~ _dead.)_

-means the Jedi drowned, body devoured by one of the Utapauan carnivores. So he’s hallucinating, now. Wonderful.

He better not let the Emperor know.

He walks out of the room - bedroom? - as slow and steady as he can, hands clasped behind his back in parade rest, and at least this is familiar, pacing down a hallway with breath and step measured, unsure what reception awaits him at the end but knowing it will inevitably be a dangerous one. At the end of the hallway, the house opens up into a more central area, a living room, maybe, sparsely furnished but cozy, and in that living room is a couch.

And sitting on that couch, also barefoot, in sweats and a thin t-shirt, is Obi-Wan Kenobi.

His face is more lined than ‘24 remembers it being, on the rare occasions he remembers the traitor he used to call _(beloved)_ General, and there’s faint streaks of silver in his copper hair, but his ocean-blue eyes are still the same, with the same shocked and awed look in them as the first time ‘24 whispered _I love you._

“Cody?” he breathes.

“You’re dead,” ‘24 says, flatly, but he reaches for his blaster anyway, because _good soldiers follow orders_ and he has to make sure, but his blaster isn’t there, why isn’t it there, he’s never without his blaster and he has to kill- he has-

 _“Breathe,”_ he hears, and there’s Force layered into the words, ‘24 knows that, can tell, but he’s helpless to stop the command from affecting him anyway, and against his will and his paralysis his chest inflates, lungs filling, and he gulps oxygen down greedily, desperately.

“I can’t look at you,” he manages, after a minute. He should want to, because when he maintains a sightline on Kenobi he can feel the pressure of Order 66, burning his brain, and he _has_ to listen, but-

He doesn’t want to. _Can’t,_ almost, he gave the order once and he finds that even though the General is certainly dead, and this is certainly a dream, and there’s still that compulsion to _make sure,_ he still doesn’t _want to._

So he lowers himself down to the wooden floor, legs shaky, closes his eyes and tilts his head back against the wall, hands clenching in the soft fabric of sleepclothes that aren’t his blacks. This way, he can pretend it’s just- his imagination, conjuring up the spectre of Kenobi to lecture him about the mysteries of the Force, not a threat he needs to address.

“Alright,” Kenobi says, very low and calm, but there’s something incredibly soft and _tender,_ almost, in his voice.

There’s a moment of silence.

“... where are we?” ‘24 doesn’t dare speak above a quiet murmur, afraid that the acknowledgement of Kenobi’s presence might disturb the fragile balance he’s found between _good soldiers follow orders_ and the thread of a whisper saying _mine, mine, beloved._

“I believe this is a dream,” Kenobi says, thoughtful, musing, the way he always does when faced with something he doesn’t understand, “at least, in a manner of speaking.”

In a manner of speaking. “You mean,” ‘24 says, wry, “it’s Force shit you don’t understand?”

 _Traitor,_ the chip hisses. ‘24 ignores it, as best as he can. It won’t last. He can feel the eye closing already.

“Exactly,” Kenobi says. “I’m so glad we’re on the same page, Cody.”

 _Don’t call me that,_ he wants to snap. _It makes the window close faster._ But he can’t get the words out. Instead, he huffs a little, says, “We always were. Except about your damned Code.” They’d gone in too many circles about whether love was attachment or not, had argued it until one day ‘24 had said _does it matter anymore, Obi-Wan?_ and kissed him, because who knew how much time they’d get, anyway.

“I find there to be a great many aspects of the Jedi Code that are lacking, now that I reflect on it,” Kenobi admits, and that’s so unlike him ‘24 can’t help a bitter laugh.

“Now I know this isn’t real,” he says, voice cracking just a touch. “The trai- Jedi I knew never would’ve said that.” Of course, it’s not real anyway, a Force vision at best, a hallucination at worst. Or maybe that’s reversed, he’s not entirely sure.

“You’re losing hold,” Kenobi says.

“Yeah. I’m supposed to-” ‘24 can’t quite keep this conversation going, he knows, but he tries anyway. It’s only the fact that this is- a dream, of some kind, that’s letting him think this clearly past the chip, he’s pretty sure on that - and even that grace period is ending.

“To kill me, I know,” Kenobi says, a note of something so strange, so unfathomable, in his voice that ‘24 almost has to look. He stops himself, just barely, because he doesn’t want this dream, this moment of respite, to end. Even though it has to.

“Can’t kill a dead man,” ‘24 says, with a humorless laugh. A part of him is glad Kenobi’s dead, because then he can maybe keep from attacking him, in this dream.

He’s not sure. Everything is starting to jumble up again.

“Cody,” Kenobi says, _so_ gentle, “I’m not dead.”

_Good soldiers follow orders._

‘24 doesn’t _mean_ to, he doesn’t, but suddenly he’s on his feet, and he snarls out _“Traitor!”_ and makes eye contact with the Jedi, lunges forward and wraps his fingers around Kenobi’s throat.

“I’m sorry, Cody,” Kenobi chokes out, sadly, and then everything melts away like smoke.

When ‘24 wakes up, he’s left strangely empty, hollow, like he hasn’t felt in years, since _execute Order Sixty-Six._ It doesn’t matter, of course, and he dismisses the feeling, along with a vague memory of peace, warmth, and rain. Still, the hollowness continues, unease lingering below his skin, and somehow, it feels like he’s lost something.

Which is ridiculous, because he hasn’t lost anything - in fact, he’s been commended by the Emperor for his excellent job hunting Jedi traitors. He has everything he needs to be an excellent soldier for the Empire.

So why does he feel so _empty?_

Obi-Wan thinks that perhaps the Force hates him.

Being one of the only Jedi to survive the end of the Clone War isn’t the greatest indicator of that, of course - really, he supposes (now that it’s been long enough that the survivor’s guilt has faded, somewhat, though he still can’t think of Mustafar without everything threatening to collapse in on him again), that’s a sign the Force favors him, thinks him worthy to survive to train the next generation, when nearly everyone else is gone - and it’s, for once, not what he’s struggling with.

He’d dreamed last night, the kind of dream that comes with a clarity only the Force can provide.

He’d seen Cody.

It’s been five years since Order Sixty-Six, since the moment his entire world shattered, and while Obi-Wan has mostly come to terms with the events of that day, there are two things he’s never been entirely able to reconcile with. The first is, of course and always, Anakin’s betrayal, _I hate you!_ snarled up at him, golden-yellow eyes bloodshot and burning with a fury Obi-Wan could feel in his bones. And the second is Cody.

Cody, eyes going glassy and blank (or so he assumes, from what Ahsoka and Rex and Aayla have told him) as the chip seizes hold of his mind; Cody, turning to their artillery troops and ordering them to fire; Cody, searching for his body to present to the Emperor, to confirm his death.

Cody, late at night in their bed, telling him how he thought Rex was going paranoid.

Obi-Wan had heard about what happened with Fives from Anakin, because even though their relationship was strained nearly to the point of breaking by that point in the war, Anakin had still trusted Obi-Wan enough to talk to him about the big things, the important things. (Except for, apparently, the most important thing of all.) He’d agreed with Cody, at the time - the Force had seemed to be trying to warn him, but the Force had been warning them all for years, now. It had seemed a farfetched idea, that the Chancellor would be lying about something so _huge,_ that the chips would be anything but anti-agression (he hadn’t liked it, it’d reminded him too much of the slave remote Anakin had had as a child).

These days, of course, he’d give anything to go back, to tell his younger self to listen to Rex, just _listen._

Obi-Wan sighs, pads across the cool wooden floor of the little house on Alderaan he’s been staying in recently; it’s one of the numerous properties owned by the Organas, a secluded little villa on the edge of a picturesque lake, with snow-capped mountains in the distance and forest all around. It’s beautiful, much more so than Tatooine, which had been his original planned refuge: the one place he knows Vader will never go. That was before Bail had offered to adopt both children, saying that _regardless of how powerful they are, Master Yoda, it’s not right to separate siblings, especially not twins._ When Obi-Wan had protested that he’d need to be on the same world as the twins to shield them, Bail had simply smiled and informed him he and Breha had a house Obi-Wan could stay in.

And so had Ben Antilles, Bail’s reclusive cousin who preferred trees to people, been born.

Bail himself is supposed to be coming up to visit today - he’s bringing supplies, the twins, and information Ahsoka’s deemed to be too sensitive to transmit over a comm. His old friend isn’t Master Yoda, isn’t Mace, but Bail might still have some insights Obi-Wan can use.

They haven’t been able to locate Cody, in the last five years. Or, rather, Ahsoka’s been able to find what his assignments are, in vague - tracking down rogue Jedi, investigating sightings and dealing with what he finds. A trail of dead bodies reveals Cody’s location to them, but always too late to catch up, and although Obi-Wan and Rex both are desperate to get Cody back, Ahsoka and Bail and Aayla all say it’s not yet worth so-obviously revealing either Obi-Wan himself or Aayla to the Empire. Sidious and Vader, of course, both know that Obi-Wan’s still alive, but the rest of the Empire doesn’t, as his name is on the list of dead Jedi.

Maybe, though, now is the time to change their minds.

_I can’t look at you._

Bail arrives a few hours later, after Obi-Wan’s eaten and showered and brewed multiple pots of tea (has poured most of them down the sink, long since gone cold, left forgotten while he paced and thought). The event is heralded by a polite knock at the villa’s door followed by said door crashing open, two shrieking five-year-olds tumbling inside with matching delighted squeals of _“Uncle Ben!”_

Obi-Wan can’t help the grin that spreads across his face, hurries forward and kneels down, pulls Luke and Leia into his arms. “Hello, ruffians,” he teases, ruffling both their hair and stifling a laugh when Leia squeals in indignation.

“Uncle _Ben,”_ she whines, “you messed up my braid!”

“You are just like your mother,” he mutters, before he can think better of it. “Come on, little ones, do you want tea?”

“Yes, please,” Luke says, with a bright smile, and so Obi-Wan pushes himself to his feet and walks over into the kitchen, sets another pot of water onto the stove to boil. 

“Bail, would you come help me with this for a moment?”

Bail walks into the kitchen with a small smile on his face. “I hope you don’t mind me leaving the children unsupervised.”

“Don’t worry,” Obi-Wan says, waving a hand, “I’ve been through the raising-a-Skywalker process, I know how much trouble they can get into. It’ll only take a few moments.” He lowers his voice as he pulls out four mugs from the cupboards. “I had a dream last night.”

“A Force vision?” Bail asks, quiet, leaning against the counter with one hip. Obi-Wan nods. “What of?”

He hesitates, and then: “Cody.” A pause. “I’m not entirely sure what it was, but I think it might’ve been a shared dream. Our minds connected through the Force for a short period of time.”

“Could you see where he was?” Bail asks, something like urgency entering his tone. He and Ahsoka both know that Cody is a high-priority target, by now.

“No,” Obi-Wan sighs. “It was set here. I’m hoping, though, if I have more of these dreams - maybe I’ll be able to find him.”

Bail nods. “We’ll do everything we can, Obi-Wan,” he says. “Was he still chipped?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” The water boils and Obi-Wan pulls the kettle off the stove, fills the teacups and sets teabags into two cups, some of his nicer loose-leaf tea into the remaining two. “The dreams gave us space to talk more freely, but Cody couldn’t look at me without trying to kill me, and the moment I told him I wasn’t dead, his chip kicked in.”

“You-” Bail stops, for a moment, nearly horrified. “Obi-Wan Kenobi, you told one of the most dangerous people in the Imperial Army that you’re alive, _and_ he knows where you are?”

Well, when framed that way… “I don’t think he could’ve figured out where I am just from the inside of my living room - and that’s if he’s even able to remember these dreams. I’m not so sure the chip will allow him that much individuality.”

Bail sighs heavily, rubs at his eyes. “If you’re sure it’s safe,” the Senator says, tiredly. “But it’s not just you at risk if the Empire finds out that one of their most wanted is in hiding on Alderaan.”

“I know,” Obi-Wan says, following Bail’s gaze out of the kitchen to the twins, chasing each other around the low table in front of the couch, Leia shrieking as Luke accidentally tugs one of her buns down.

 _“Daddy!”_ the girl yelps, running into the kitchen with one hand pressed against the side of her head. “Daddy, Luke ruined my hair.”

“Oh, come here, precious,” Bail says, drops down to his knees so he can tug Leia into his chest. “Let me fix that for you.”

Obi-Wan busies himself with bringing the four mugs of tea into the living room as Bail carefully redoes his daughter’s hair into a second coiled bun. He _could,_ if he’s careful, carry all four at once - but Luke’s watching him with a curious light in his sky-blue eyes that reminds him of Anakin, so Obi-Wan winks and reaches for the Force, hovers two of the mugs in the air above his right hand. Luke’s eyes go huge and wide, and Obi-Wan can’t help a warm smile. The boy really is just too much like Anakin, in all the best ways.

When Obi-Wan sets the mugs down on the table, Luke comes over, hesitant, and stretches out one hand towards his, bites his lip and narrows his eyes in concentration until the mug slowly, wobbly, lifts about an inch off the table. “Look, Uncle Ben!” he says, beaming, though the moment he looks away from the mug he loses his concentration and it drops back to the table, the tea splashing up and over the edge. “I did it!”

“Good job, Luke,” Obi-Wan says, smiling, reaches out into the Force to smooth away the ripples from the rough, unrefined grab at the Force. Both twins are doing surprisingly well for their young age and sporadic lessons; he thinks that between Anakin’s blood and Padme’s stubbornness, if there’s something they want to learn, nothing can stop them.

It keeps him going, some days when everything else gets to be too much (less frequent now, after so long since the day the Order fell, but given that the doctors Bail makes him see every so often have commented that Obi-Wan has a worse case of post-traumatic stress disorder than anyone they’ve seen, it’s not a surprise that it still happens) - the fact that he has a second chance, this time.

He won’t fail the twins the way he failed Anakin.

And now, if he’s lucky, he’ll have a second chance with Cody, too.

When CC-2224 opens his eyes to a bland grey Imperial base around him after nearly two weeks dream-free, he at first thinks maybe he’s just waking up like normal - he’s back on base after a fruitless three days spent tracking down a deserter through a scrubby wilderness, the base is only dimly lit by light through the (regulation, this time) window and the soft yellowish glow of the night lights along the walls. But when he gets up and walks over to the window, glances out to look up at the night sky (an old habit, because his _cyare_ had loved the stars, had pointed out all his favorite constellations and told him all the stories about them in different cultures), the dark is full of galaxies and nebulae, beautiful and vast and like nothing he’s ever seen.

Except-

There was one planet, near the Unknown Regions, that ‘24 can’t remember the name of now - they’d been overseeing the construction of a new Republic base there, and Kenobi had taken him outside one night to show him how the sky was full of star clusters. _It’s because we’re so close to the Unknown Regions,_ he’d said, as ‘24 stared up in awe. _All the star clusters and black holes make this area of the galaxy more dangerous than most, but it makes the skies all the more beautiful._

He hadn’t had to explain to ‘24 why they were building a base in this dangerous of an area - during the base’s construction, a Separatist fleet came out from hiding from behind a star cluster, had nearly decimated their forces, would’ve had a nearly-straight shot to Coruscant from the back.

That’s what the sky reminds him of, now, as he stares up through the window.

Somehow, he knows to go outside.

It’s easier to remember this isn’t real when he’s staring at Kenobi’s copper hair, bathed in soft colors from the nebulae above. Because whatever the man said, the last time he dreamed about him, he’s a ghost. He has to be, he can’t be alive.

‘24 doesn’t miss.

“Guess the Force is real invested in shoving us together,” ‘24 mutters, runs a hand through his hair and, at a loss, sits down next to Kenobi.

Kenobi, who is dead and is a ghost, because otherwise- well, _good soldiers follow orders._

“Indeed,” Kenobi says, seemingly equally tired. What a ghost has to be tired about, ‘24’s not sure. And Kenobi _has_ to be a ghost. 

It’s the only way ‘24 can keep the Order at bay.

“I didn’t want to shoot you,” he says, abruptly, rubbing at his forehead. The chip doesn’t even like him saying that much, but as long as he remembers that Kenobi is dead and gone, that this is the Force and not reality, it lets him talk. “I remember- when the Order came, I tried to fight it, because I couldn’t- do it. I couldn’t tell them to shoot you. But then something just- twisted, and it didn’t matter anymore.” He sighs, shakes his head. “Now nothing matters at all.”

There’s a long pause, and ‘24 can’t look over at Kenobi but he knows the weight of the quiet in the air. He knows what Kenobi’s guilt feels like. He felt it often enough during the war, thick and heavy, even when it wasn’t the damn Jedi’s fault at all. ‘24 doesn’t know what to say to it now.

(He used to, he knows, but most of the memories from that time are fuzzy, like he’s looking back at them through a fogged-up window. The man in those memories isn’t him, not anymore, and ‘24 almost can’t remember what it felt like to be him.)

“What if I told you,” Kenobi starts, pulling ‘24’s mind back to the present, “there was a way to get you out? Pull the chip out of your mind so you could think again, take you away from the Empire, where you’d be safe.”

‘24 laughs.

He can’t help it, almost - it’s bitter and twisted and thorny, drags like knives across his throat, and he pushes himself to his feet and paces across the cold, dry sand, shaking his head. The small planet spreads out around him, a quiet desert they’d chosen for its large spaces for ship landings, the stars burning like fire in the sky and strange animals howling in the distance, an eerie, high-pitched sound. Something makes ‘24 think he could just- run, away from this shadow of the past he doesn’t want to remember, because it’s so much easier if he stays the machine the Empire turned him into, and he thinks if he ran far enough away these dreams would end.

Some long-forgotten part of him keeps him there, standing, hands shoved behind his back, staring out over the desert, feeling the cracks spreading across his soul (if he even still has one, now, and he doesn’t know why he’s thinking about that, the chip shouldn’t _let him)._

“There’s nowhere away from the Empire,” he says, heavy and tired. “And I’m a Jedi killer now, I’m one of the Emperor’s favorite tools.” He sighs, looks up at the sky again, eyes picking out a tangle of stars like a spiked crown - on one little blue-green Mid Rim planet, late in the war, he and Kenobi had been on a diplomatic mission, and Kenobi had snuck them out of the building they were supposed to be staying in on a midnight picnic. The Crown of Thorns, he’d said the constellation was called, there, supposedly the crown of that civilization’s god, risen to the stars. Why does ‘24 remember that so clearly, when everything else feels like the fading paint on his armor, peeling and cracking away?

It must be the dream.

“Cody…” Kenobi murmurs, sounds like he’s going to say more, but ‘24 cuts him off.

“I’m not him,” he says, shakes his head. “I barely even remember him, I- I’m not even a person. I killed you, and when I’m awake I can’t feel anything anymore. I loved you so _much_ and then I killed you and if the chip let me remember that, I’d- break.”

 _I. Me._ Maybe there’s more of Cody left in him than ‘24 had thought.

“Tell me where you are,” Kenobi says.

“You’re dead, and a traitor to the Empire,” ‘24 says, laughing again, harsh. “Why would I tell you anything?”

“As you said, I’m dead,” Kenobi tells him, “and this is a dream, it can’t hurt anything. _Please,_ Cody.” His voice is almost pleading, and it tugs at something inside ‘24, somewhere deep in his heart where everything’s been locked away for so many years.

Kenobi’s dead. So it can’t- it can’t really hurt. Still, ‘24 is quiet for a long minute before he sighs and says, “Carnth. It’s mostly farms, a few big cities, under Imperial control. We’re just waiting here for our next assignment.” It’s a boring planet in the Mid Rim, but everyone’s too afraid of the Imps to act out, and the base ‘24 and his soldiers are staying in currently is a good bridge between the Core and the Outer Rim. 

“Thank you, Cody,” Kenobi says. There’s something strange about his voice, a kind of finality almost, and ‘24 can’t help turning to look at him.

He has just enough time to make eye contact with those soft, beautiful blue eyes before the dream fades.

  
  


Carnth.

Really, it takes very little to convince Rex, a couple of his freed brothers, and two of Ahsoka’s recruits to join Obi-Wan in a raid on the small farming planet. Obi-Wan has no way of knowing which base in which city Cody’s in, but Ahsoka solves that for him, works her Fulcrum magic and gets him the coordinates for the main Imperial base in the capital city, Joventh, and enough sets of scandocs that’ll fool local stormtroopers for long enough at least for their mission. Bail provides the ship, and so it is that, a week after Obi-Wan’s last dream of Cody, he and Rex set off to bring Cody home.

It’s several hours in hyperspace before they reach Carnth, and Obi-Wan spends most of the time meditating, part of it playing dejarik against Rex’s brother Heath. He’d play a game or two against Rex, but the man’s too distracted, is pacing and staring out the viewscreen at the stars streaking by and taking apart his DCs to clean and put back together, over and over again. His anxiety seeps into the Force even though he’s clearly trying to keep it back behind the formidable mental shields he has, considering his lack of Force-sensitivity.

Anakin’s doing, once, and then Ahsoka’s after.

Obi-Wan projects Light, calm, even though he feels a current of nerves rising to echo Rex’s own; he thinks they’re both afraid of the same things.

What if these dreams were just dreams, what if Cody isn’t there, what if this is all a trap.

Obi-Wan doesn’t let himself think about that.

It’s with a deliberately still, calm mind that he pulls the ship out of hyperspace and hails the spaceport patrol, lands carefully in the bay they direct him towards. He shuts the ship down, takes a deep breath, feeling the Force hum something like a warning. There’s danger here.

Obi-Wan knows that. So he breathes in again, deeper this time, and when he lets the air out he imagines releasing all his fears and worries with it, calming his mind and his racing heart.

He leaves the cockpit behind.

Rex, Kix, and Heath are waiting for him in the main bay, disguises ready, and Obi-Wan nods at them, glances over at the woman Ahsoka sent him. “Keep the ship ready,” he says, and she nods, slips past him to the cockpit to monitor the instruments and sensors. Just in case.

Something doesn’t feel quite right, in his bones, now that he’s here.

“Are you ready, Rex?” he asks, and Rex nods, serious.

“Let’s go get my brother,” he says.

Obi-Wan pulls up his hood and wraps the scarf more around his face, presses the button to lower the ship’s ramp and steps outside into the cool autumn air. It’s late evening, though it’s not quite the city’s curfew, and it’s easy enough for the four of them to drift along the edges of the crowd, heads down, staying in the shadows and avoiding the stormtrooper patrols. They get stopped once, and Obi-Wan hands over the forged scandocs with a whisper of Force, just enough to convince the trooper to not pay too close attention, to hand them back over and wave them on their way. They aren’t stopped again, and as they draw nearer to the Imperial base Obi-Wan looks over at Rex, motions towards an alley, and they slip down it, out of the way.

“Have your grappling attachments ready,” he says in a low voice, and Rex and Heath nod, fierce. Kix stands behind Obi-Wan, keeping watch at the mouth of the alley, but at Obi-Wan’s words he turns around, pulls a syringe in a small case from his pocket.

“Here,” he says, offering it out. “This’ll sedate him long enough to get him to our ship, and I’ve got everything ready to give him an emergency surgery as soon as we get into hyperspace. He’ll be awake before we hit Alderaan again.”

“Excellent,” Obi-Wan says, closing his hand around the case and tucking it away. It’s just a sedative, but it feels almost like a promise. “We’ll keep you updated, Kix.”

Kix nods, tightening his grip on his blaster. His job is both the least dangerous and the most important - he’s here to keep their escape route clear, and then, when they get back with Cody, he’ll help keep him stable until they’re able to get his chip out on their way home. It’ll be enough time to give Cody a choice of where he wants to go, hopefully, if he wants to go with Rex to stay with the Rebels, or if he wants to find his own way, his own life, or- Obi-Wan doesn’t want to hope too much, but maybe Cody will want… well, the house he’s been staying in is too big for one person, and it’s starting to become incurably lonely when the twins aren’t around.

He nods back at Kix, then turns to the wall, takes a deep breath, then reaches out to the Force and jumps.

Rex and his brothers join him after another minute, and they creep along the wall, weapons at the ready, although there are only a few stormtroopers around - Obi-Wan motions to them and they drop down from the wall in a puddle of shadow between two bright spotlights, and then it’s just a few minutes of carefully picking their way past patrols, pressing close against the walls until they reach a back door, guarded by two stormtroopers. Obi-Wan concentrates, a moment, lifts a rock from the ground and tosses it against a wall on the other side of the door from their position, and when the stormtroopers look away, Rex and Heath come up behind them and take them down, silently, the only sounds a soft, aborted yelp from one and the quiet clatter of plastoid on stone as they drag the troopers back around the corner and lay them down in the shadows.

Obi-Wan doesn’t let himself wonder if those men were clones, only here because they can’t refuse to follow orders. It’s easier that way.

Inside the base, everything is uniform grey, quiet, the halls nearly empty, and Obi-Wan pulls up the readout on the base, Rex and Heath huddling around the small projection. “The barracks should be here,” and he indicates the relevant area on the holomap. “We entered through the back entrance, here, so the shortest route would be to take the next left,” and he nods at the T in the hall, just up ahead. The left path should take them to the barracks, the right leading further into the base. Obi-Wan hopes they don’t have to go that way, as he’s sure the further they get into the base, the more patrols they’ll encounter, and this mission is all about speed and secrecy - they’ll never make it offworld if the entire platoon of stormtroopers stationed here is on the alert, and hauling Cody around unconscious will be too visible.

“Can you sense him?” Rex asks, shifting his weight and adjusting his grip on his twin blaster pistols, and Obi-Wan frowns, reaches out into the Force.

When Order 66 had gone out, his men had gone from a vast, glittering field of stars to a thousand identical white lights - men he’d known for _years_ by their Force-signatures alone, able to recognize them no matter their face or their armor, had become unrecognizable to him. It’d been the first sign that anything was _wrong_ \- that and the cannon blast that knocked him and his varactyl off the sinkhole’s wall. Cody’s always been so incredibly _familiar_ to him, though, even when turned into a blank slate by the chip; he likes to think he knows his Commander intimately enough that he’d know him anywhere, even in that faceless white stormtrooper armor.

When he casts his awareness out over the base, though, he can’t feel Cody anywhere.

“Not yet,” he admits, sighing and turning off the map, shaking himself and pushing forward towards the turn they need to take. “But it’s been more difficult to sense your brothers since the Order went out. I have faith we’ll find him.”

They have to.

Obi-Wan isn’t sure what he’ll do if this all comes to nothing, and he knows Rex will struggle with it as well; losing Cody now, after everything, simply isn’t an option.

The corridor near the barracks is nearly empty, but they do have to silently take out another two-man patrol, and there’s nowhere nearby to hide the bodies. They’ll have to hurry to get Cody and get out of here before the alarm is raised.

The barracks itself is several large rooms of bunks, and Obi-Wan tells Rex and Heath to wait outside, keeping watch, and he pulls his cloak and the Force tightly around him, ducking into each room separately and slipping through the dark, searching for a familiar face, for painted armor, a Force-signature he knows, something, _anything._ But the armor stacked neatly by each bunk is white and uniform, the helmets all the stormtrooper style he’s learned to distrust. There’s no splashes of 212th gold, no familiar scarred face traced with more lines than he remembers, nothing.

After the fourth room he goes over to Rex and murmurs, quiet enough he hopes the soft breathing of the nearby sleeping men will drown him out, “We should check the records in the command center.”

Rex nods, eyes hardening, mouth pressing into a thin, tight line, and he gestures at Heath with a short, sharp motion and the two of them fall in behind Obi-Wan as they move through the grey halls again.

Cody wouldn’t have lied, he’d said himself he thinks Obi-Wan is dead and these dreams are nothing but dreams. And Obi-Wan has to believe that there’s still something of Cody left in the man, even with the chip - as much as Cody had tried to deny it, during their last dream. _I loved you so much and then I killed you._

No, Cody’s still there, just trapped behind the chip’s walls, and Obi-Wan is going to save him.

The halls to the command center aren’t as full as they would be during the day, that’s the only saving grace - they abandon being quiet, for now, and Obi-Wan ignites his lightsaber and deflects blaster bolts back at the stormtroopers shooting at them, Rex and Heath shooting from behind him, and together they advance to the command center and force their way through the door. The room is fully staffed, still, techs and comms officers at their posts, a few stormtrooper guards, all of whom look up as Obi-Wan enters. He smiles, twirls his saber, says, “Hello there.”

Stormtroopers start firing right away, the others going for holdout blasters, and Obi-Wan pushes out with one hand, shattering a panel of transparisteel and sending shards raining down on several people, drops that same hand to a bank of computers and vaults over, deflecting blaster bolts as he goes. He ducks under one shot, sees Rex and Heath taking out stormtroopers, focuses on the comms officers around him, blocking their shots and cutting through them one and two at a time. He doesn’t… exactly like the violence, but these people are working for the Empire (and the Empire has been around long enough for people to make choices on who they’re going to serve) and if any of them survive - if any of them realize who was here… it could put everything they’re working towards in danger. (And he needs to get Cody _away from this place.)_ So he works his way through the room, quick and efficient, until all that’s left is a single technician, cowering against the back of his chair as he stares down Obi-Wan’s lightsaber.

“W-whatever you want, I’ll do it,” he says, lifting his hands a little higher in the air, almost in emphasis. “... what _do_ you want?”

“Information,” Obi-Wan says smoothly, shifting back just a little, to give the man some breathing room. “Cooperate and we won’t harm you.”

 _“Don’t lie,”_ Rex mutters under his breath in Mando’a. Obi-Wan ignores him.

“I’m looking for a clone commander, designation CC-2224, name Cody - I believe he’s frequently assigned to following rumors of Jedi survivors. He should be stationed here.”

The technician goes _pale._ “You want- Uh, well- H-he was reassigned offworld yesterday, he’s gone.”

“What?” Rex says, low and dangerous, and Obi-Wan lifts his free hand, shakes his head just a touch.

“Then there ought to be records in the system showing where he’s been transferred to, yes?” 

“I, er-” The man looks like he’s about to have a heart attack, but Obi-Wan doesn’t relent, though he doesn’t drop his hand, either - he doesn’t trust Rex not to shoot. “Well, that information is classified, it’s priority _eleven,_ none of us have the clearance to know.”

Obi-Wan sighs, resists the urge to rub his forehead. “Can you crack the encryption?” he asks, and the technician looks wildly between his lightsaber and Rex’s blasters, looking even more terrified.

“They’d kill me,” he wheezes, and then Rex fires a shot that hits the man in his knee and he _yells._

 _“I’ll_ kill you,” Rex growls. “Start talking.”

“I don’t know! I really don’t know,” the man says, babbles almost. Obi-Wan tightens his hand around his lightsaber, a sinking feeling in his stomach. Cody’s _gone._ “That squad answers directly to- to Lord Vader and the _Emperor,_ I can’t tell you anything, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Please don’t kill me.”

Rex shoots the man in the head.

“General,” Heath calls from the door, “we’ve got incoming.”

Obi-Wan swears, rubs at his face and looks over at Rex, who’s barely moved, is staring down at the dead technician with distant eyes. Obi-Wan knows how he feels - Cody’s not here. They’re too late. “Rex,” he says, gently, “we have to go. I promise you, we _will_ find him.”

Rex swallows hard, shakes himself a little, nods and says, “I know, sir. Let’s get out of here.”

They have to fight their way out, and the whole time, Obi-Wan can’t help touching a hand to the sedative Kix had given him, even though he should’ve known better than to trust that this would work the first time. They’ve never been able to catch up to Cody in the past, of course it would take time to get him back. But it still feels like blow to the chest and he can barely breathe around it, because he’d thought-

He’d let himself believe he was only a few minutes away from finally being able to touch Cody’s face again, and now he’s having to leave Carnth empty-handed, again.

When they finally get back to their ship and take off, Obi-Wan lets their pilot handle the ship, goes to find Rex and pulls him into a tight hug. “You know how much I care for him, Rex,” he says, quiet, clinging to his control. “I’m not giving up, I’m going to find him. I _promise_ you, Rex,” and he pulls back to make eye contact with the younger man, serious. “I will find him.”

Rex’s shoulders are stiff beneath Obi-Wan’s hands and he looks down, says, “I know.” Obi-Wan doesn’t think he’s ever seen the man seem so _small_ before, although perhaps Ahsoka has, would know how to help. Quieter, he says, “I wanted him to be here.”

“So did I,” Obi-Wan says, closes his eyes for a moment. “It’s been so long, I-” He stops himself, shakes his head with a small smile. “We’ll find him. The Force wants me to, I think.”

Why else would it be connecting them through the dreams?

This is a setback, to be sure, but only a minor one in the end. He will find Cody, and then- Well. Then he’ll decide what he’s going to do.

  
  


Cody knows he’s dreaming because nothing hurts.

He remembers the explosion, a grenade of some kind that threw him into a wall and knocked his helmet off, a collision that left him unconscious for- he’s not sure how long. They’d been killing off a village that refused to tell them the location of the Jedi they’re hunting, trying to lure her out, and there’d been little resistance. He’d woken up half-trapped under a building and blissfully unaware for a half-second until his world snapped back into painful clarity.

Somehow his chip had been damaged by the hit, and he’d been swamped with the horrified realization that _he killed his General._ Not just his General, his _cyare,_ the man he loved- he _loves-_ more than anything, except for his _vode._ Obi-Wan’s been on the list of dead Jedi for years, Cody _remembers_ giving the order to shoot him down. He killed his Jedi like all the time they’d spent together didn’t even matter.

He’d cried, silently, bleeding from a gash on his temple and pinned down just enough he couldn’t get up on his own, had found himself reaching for his blaster because the idea of living when he’d killed _his cyare_ \- it’d been more than he could handle.

Then he’d heard the voice.

“Stop,” she’d said, calm, and he’d listened.

It’d turned out - not that he was surprised, really - that she was the Jedi they’d been looking for, and she’d said something about recognizing the way his Force signature flickered and knowing he’d been freed from the chip’s influence. (He’s fairly certain, given the tone of her voice when she’d first told him to stop, that she was using the Force on him. Obi-Wan had done it before, on rare occasions, both on him and on others.)

She’d offered to help him get away from the Empire, once she helped with the village. He’d told her it was a trap and everyone was likely dead, and she’d said she knew that already, but she had to try.

So he’d agreed to go with her, because, well- She’d reminded him too much of Obi-Wan, in that moment, and he’d had an unsettling feeling that if he didn’t go with her, she might not come back. She’d seemed to have that kind of self-sacrificial air about her.

They’d gone to see what help they could offer, though Cody had been unsure that any of the survivors would trust him, given his armor and the fact that he’d just been very actively trying to exterminate them all, and then the rest of his squad had found them.

Appo had accused him of being a traitor.

He’d managed to hold them off long enough for the Jedi to run (she hadn’t wanted to, but he’d snarled at her this wasn’t worth her dying over, _he_ wasn’t worth her dying over, the galaxy needs Jedi more than it needs clones), and then they’d finally taken him down with a well-placed shot. Between the plasma burn from the blasterfire and the bruises and cracked bones from the wall collapsing on him and the awful ache in his head from a concussion and, probably, the malfunctioning chip, his subsequent capture and imprisonment on their ship had turned into a low thrum of agony and grief.

He’s killed his Jedi, his _cyare,_ and how can he even begin to make that right?

So when he wakes up to no pain and soft sunlight streaming in over his face, a light and airy room so achingly familiar it chokes him, he knows he’s dreaming.

He sits up, looks around - as he’d thought, he’s laying in- in Obi-Wan’s bed, in the Jedi Temple. There’s the soft smell of that tea Obi-Wan liked so much in the air and a spare cloak tossed over the chair in the corner and all Cody wants to do is _cry_ because there have been so very few places where he’s been totally, utterly _safe_ and this set of rooms was one of them. (Obi-Wan’s Temple rooms. Jango’s room on Kamino. Curled up in a cadet bunk with Rex, having a secret sleepover, even though the nightly flash training meant they couldn’t talk, because the two of them curled up close was a comfort and a promise and Rex, oh, _Rex, I should’ve listened to you, why didn’t I listen.)_

Cody rubs at his eyes and pushes the blankets off his legs, gets out of the bed and crosses the room to the cloak, picks it up and buries his face in it. It still smells like Obi-Wan, like tea and the soft ocean-rain smell of the soap he uses- _used_ on his clothes and something nearly intangible, that he’d never totally been able to pin down, like ozone, some side effect or byproduct of the Force, maybe. That, too, nearly breaks his control, and he swallows hard and clutches the robe tightly in his hands and leaves the bedroom behind.

There’s the small living area and the kitchen, just like he remembers, cluttered but not messy, mostly with things Obi-Wan had brought back from missions and holonovels and the occasional bound flimsi book, the soft blue couch with the worn pillows. The smell of tea is stronger out here and there’s someone humming in the kitchen.

Cody’s afraid to look.

He can’t stop himself, though, and sure enough, when he looks up, Obi-Wan’s standing at the stove, making tea, back to Cody and humming a Mando lullaby Jango had taught them. He’d convinced Cody to sing it for him, once, after stumbling across Cody humming it to ease a dying _vod,_ had wanted to know the words so he could comfort the brothers dying in the medbay, the ones even Jedi healing couldn’t save. Obi-Wan’s singing voice had been- one of the most beautiful things Cody had ever heard, even when it was scratchy and thin with grief.

“Obi-Wan?” he whispers, can’t stop himself, even though he _knows-_ this is a dream, and talking will only make it worse.

The humming cuts off, _fast,_ and Cody sees Obi’s shoulders tense up and his hands freeze on his mug for a moment before he takes a deep, slightly-shaky breath and gets another mug, filling it with the hot water. “Cody,” he says, quiet, so much deep _emotion_ in his voice that he’s clearly struggling to hold back. “I’d forgotten, I think, the exact way you say my name.”

Cody can barely breathe. “I- Obi-Wan, I’m _sorry,”_ and he knows it doesn’t matter because Obi-Wan is _dead,_ but he has to apologize anyway, isn’t sure he can live with himself if he doesn’t. “I’m so sorry.” He tries to keep the tears from spilling over onto his cheeks, because even if his _cyare_ is a dream he doesn’t want to worry him, but it’s a near-futile attempt.

“Whatever for?” Obi-Wan asks, and he’d sound light and relaxed if Cody couldn’t see the tension in his shoulders, hear the tiny waver in his voice, notice the fact that he hasn’t turned around yet, is busying his hands with the two mugs.

“I killed you.” Cody’s voice breaks, just a little, on the words. “I _killed you.”_

Obi-Wan turns around, finally, and there are tears shining in his blue, blue eyes, and he crosses the space to Cody quickly (something crossing his face when he sees the robe in Cody’s hands). “Shh, it’s okay,” he soothes, tugging Cody into a hug, and Cody wraps his arms around his Jedi, _tight,_ buries his face in his greying copper hair. “You didn’t kill me, Cody, I’m alive. The dreams you’ve been having aren’t dreams, the Force is connecting us.”

Cody _breaks._

He doesn’t know how long he cries for - time is a funny thing in dreams anyway, and with Obi-Wan’s arms around him, holding him close, it matters even less. Still, after a while, the tears dry up, some, and he takes a shuddering breath and murmurs, into Obi’s hair, “The dreams- I barely remember them. How can you be alive?”

He almost can’t believe it.

“Whichever of your brothers was manning the cannon that shot at me had good aim, but he was slightly off, and I was able to use the Force to deflect the missile further,” Obi-Wan explains, pulling back just enough to make eye contact with him, reaching one hand up to wipe tears off Cody’s cheek. Cody turns his face into Obi-Wan’s palm and closes his eyes - the _kindness_ of this all is too much, it hurts, almost. “I stole Grievous’ fighter and rendezvoused with a few others. It’s been a long five years, my dear.”

“Something happened to me,” Cody says, quiet. “I think my control chip - it malfunctioned, and I could think again. I helped save a Jedi.” He sighs, opens his eyes again to look down at Obi-Wan, hesitantly reaching up a hand to brush his _cyare’s_ cheek. “They locked me up for it, but it was worth it. Knowing you’re not dead… that I didn’t kill you… everything’s worth it.” He can’t help a smile, softer than he means it to be, because he might be about to be executed for treason but at least he saved _someone,_ at least his Jedi is alive and safe for now and Cody got to hold him one last time and to apologize.

“I’m going to find you,” Obi-Wan vows, taking Cody’s face in both his hands. “I promise, love, I’ll rescue you. Where are they taking you?”

“I don’t know, but we just left Dantooine.” He swallows, traces his fingers feather-light over Obi-Wan’s cheekbone, whispers, “Can I- can I kiss you?”

_“Please.”_

Cody can barely breathe, but he shifts his hand to cup Obi-Wan’s cheek, closes his eyes and leans in and presses their foreheads together for a moment, steadying himself. Obi-Wan slides one hand around to the back of Cody’s neck and whispers, “It’s alright, Cody,” and Cody takes a shaky breath and kisses him.

After a moment he has to pull away to catch his breath, but Obi-Wan doesn’t let him put space between them, just holds Cody close and says, quiet, “We came to get you out, but you were already gone. Do you remember telling me where I could find you?”

It takes a minute - the memories are fuzzy, but Cody does faintly remember having dreams of Obi-Wan before, hazy ones where the only thing he knew for sure was he was talking to a ghost that wasn’t real, couldn’t be real. He’d told the ghost- he’d told Obi-Wan where he was stationed, he remembers that. “You came to get me?” Even after everything he’s done, somehow Obi-Wan always forgives him, and he- he doesn’t deserve it. “Obi-Wan, I-”

He can’t finish the sentence.

Obi-Wan brushes his fingers through Cody’s hair, gentle, says, “Of course I came to get you, my dear, the Empire doesn’t get to keep you.”

Cody pulls his head back from Obi-Wan’s with some difficulty, swallows and traces his fingers over Obi-Wan’s jawline. “I’ll wait for you,” he promises, doesn’t add, _no matter what they do to me._

Obi-Wan’s face is starting to feel less real under his palms and Cody steps closer, as though that could keep the dream from fading away, as though that could block out the white noise in his ears. “Stay with me,” he begs. He doesn’t want to wake up to the reality of a prison cell and an Imperial transport, the likelihood of torture - just enough for them to learn he’d only just been freed and hadn’t helped the rebels or the Jedi in any way - and summary execution once the transport reaches its destination.

Obi-Wan says he’s going to come rescue him, and Cody believes him, has always believed him, but the Empire doesn’t stop, doesn’t slow down, and if Obi-Wan doesn’t have enough time to find Cody and make a plan and-

Obi-Wan will blame himself if Cody dies before he can get there. Cody knows that. He hates it.

“I’m right here,” Obi-Wan promises, takes both of Cody’s hands in his, and Cody holds on as tight as he can, wishes he never had to let go. “I’m going to find you, alright? Trust me.”

Obi-Wan’s face blurs like a mirage, like a reflection on water, and Cody can barely feel his _cyare’s_ hands anymore. “You know I do, I always have.”

Obi-Wan’s smiling, Cody thinks, but it’s hard to see. “Cody, I-”

Before he can finish the sentence, everything melts away to darkness - but for a moment, he almost thinks he can feel what Obi-Wan was going to say, anyway, a rush of warmth like an embrace, leaving him feeling safe for the first time in- a long time, and when he wakes up, even though it’s to a detention area and a cell and the knowledge of his impending death, he wakes up with a smile.

  
  


_“I’ve found him.”_

Ahsoka’s voice, over the comm, is breathless, and Obi-Wan doesn’t have to ask to know who she’s talking about - ever since he’d woken up from a dream with Cody, the night before last, and commed her with the information Cody had given him _(with his squad, prison ship, just left Dantooine),_ she’s been searching through every network she has to find Cody’s coordinates, find the ship’s destination, any stops it’s scheduled to make. He’d barely been able to sleep last night, had alternated between pacing and meditating and trying to just drink tea and read, in a mostly-futile attempt to keep his mind off Cody’s situation. It’s only been working in brief snatches, a handful of minutes at a time where he can forget that the man he loves might be dying and he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to reach him in time.

Obi-Wan stands, crossing the room to grab his cloak where he’d thrown it over a chair, tossing it on, calls his saber to him from where he’d gotten it out and set it on his nightstand. The metal warms quickly to his palm, a comfort, and he takes a deep breath. “Where is he?”

 _“On a light cruiser, scheduled to make a stop to refuel at an Imperial asteroid base. I can send you the coordinates - the base is just a fuel refinery, there won’t be many troops, I think it’d be the best place to attack.”_ Ahsoka pauses, and Obi-Wan grabs the last of his supplies, leaves his small cabin behind and takes his speeder bike to the landing pad hidden in the trees. There’s a shuttle there, one he’s used only a couple times - it’s nondescript, a special scrambler installed so its codes change every time he flies it, and he inputs Ahsoka’s base coordinates into the navicomputer by memory as he runs through the startup sequence. _“It’s supposed to meet up with the_ Executor, _Obi-Wan.”_

The _Executor._ Darth Vader’s flagship. “We’ll just have to get Cody out of there before Vader can get to him, then,” Obi-Wan says, trying to be light. Who knows what Anakin- what Vader plans to do with Cody. Interrogate him, certainly, and Imperial interrogation techniques are not kind. Even less kind, he thinks, with a Sith Lord presiding. “I’m on my way to our rendezvous.”

 _“I’ll meet you there,”_ Ahsoka says, cuts off the comm, and Obi-Wan can’t help wondering - he hadn’t thought she was going to come with him. Maybe she still isn’t, maybe she’s just meeting him there - she’s probably bringing Rex, now that he thinks about it.

It’s only been a day and a half. Cody will be alright, he has to be. Logically, not much will have changed for him in the last some thirty-six hours; he might’ve gotten new injuries, but they won’t kill him, not yet, not when they’re clearly taking him to Vader.

The Force feels _so_ heavy, nearly smothering him beneath the weight. He’s used to how empty it feels, by now (though being so near to Luke and Leia helps with that, some, their twin presences in the Force are so blindingly bright he can nearly forget how many are missing), but it’s been a long time since it’s felt so _oppressive,_ choking the air from his lungs with every breath.

Something’s wrong, he’s sure of it, but what?

When he meets up with Ahsoka, she is, in fact, bringing Rex - she tells Obi-Wan she wanted to come, but she has urgent news for Saw’s cell of rebels on Onderon, and besides, two of the very few remaining Jedi shouldn’t be in the same place at the same time unless absolutely necessary. That’s just inviting trouble, what with the Empire being led by two Sith Lords and the multiple Inquisitors running around, all desperate to prove their worth by taking down a Jedi (whether that Jedi is just a child or not). Still, Ahsoka hugs him before she leaves, wishes him luck, and he finds a smile somewhere and tells her _there’s no such thing as luck, haven’t you paid attention to anything I taught you?_

She laughs at him, says, “May the Force be with you, then, Master Kenobi,” and leaves, and Obi-Wan looks over his team; Rex and Kix are with him again, though this time Kix isn’t here to stop Cody from trying to kill them, he’s here to make sure Cody’s actually alright when they try to move him. A pilot Ahsoka recruited and a young woman who’s a Jedi sympathizer, who’d been too young to fight during the Clone War itself. It’s a small team, but the aim here is stealth, and it’s a light cruiser - it’s not like they’re trying to infiltrate a star destroyer. 

Everyone’s ready. They only have a small window of time to make it to the fuel refinery before the cruiser drops out of hyperspace there, so Obi-Wan doesn’t waste time making speeches, just nods at his team and climbs aboard their ship. 

It’s a long flight in hyperspace. They keep a schedule, one person in the cockpit keeping watch, everyone else resting so that they’re all ready as soon as they arrive. Obi-Wan can’t sleep, but he meditates, falls into the Force and tries to let that soothe him. Though it’s not exactly easy, with how much the sense of incoming danger weighs on him. Still, he’d known this wasn’t going to be safe from the start.

(He could be walking into a trap, he’s forced to admit to himself. But it’d be an incredibly elaborate one with weeks of set-up, and if it’d been a trap why hadn’t Sidious sprung it on Carnth? No, this is real.)

(It has to be real.)

He’s on watch when the proximity alarm beeps, signaling they’re near their destination, and he makes an announcement over the intercom, telling everyone to get ready, and pulls the ship out of hyperspace.

The large asteroid the fuel refinery is on isn’t the only celestial body in this sector, not by a long shot, and the pilot, Cena, a fierce but calm blue Twi’lek, comes to the cockpit to take over for Obi-Wan, hiding the ship in the shadow of a neighboring asteroid. “Good luck,” she tells him.

Obi-Wan just nods, can barely muster a smile at her in return.

Down in the main bay, next to where the ramp drops down, he finds Rex, Kix, and Val, short and dark-skinned with a fuzzy poof of dark hair, an ace shot with a blaster, from what Ahsoka’s said about her. “Ready?” he asks, gets firm nods from all of them.

They all know the danger they’re facing today.

“Let’s kick some Imp ass,” Val says, grimly determined.

Rex is checking the sights on his blaster pistols, but he looks up for a half-second at that, a ghost of a smile on his face. “And get my brother back,” he adds.

Cena comes over the intercom then, warning them the cruiser’s just exited hyperspace and she’s moving the ship to intercept and dock, and Obi-Wan lifts the hood of his cloak, even though he’ll be easily recognizable as a Jedi whether his face is showing or not. There’s a strange cold in the air, jangling his nerves in ways he hasn’t felt in years, and he glances over at Rex, meets the old Captain’s eyes just before he puts his helmet on.

Rex nods once, in acknowledgement, and Obi-Wan allows himself to be grateful at how easy it is to work with these men, who served next to him and his people for years, and don’t need words to understand when a Jedi feels something _off._ He doesn’t want to alarm Val, it’s just best if Rex, at least, is prepared.

(Obi-Wan wonders, a little, if Kix can feel the same heavy cold in the air - he knows the medic is Force-sensitive, though he has little formal training, and part of him has to wonder if this is all in his head or if someone else is feeling it too.)

He sways on his feet with the motion of the ship as it docks with the cruiser with a faint _thunk_ and the docking tube extends, and Obi-Wan leads the way through it, saber in his hand though he doesn’t ignite it. He’d spent some time memorizing the layout of the light cruiser on the flight here and so he knows what turns he’ll have to take to reach the detention level - Rex had done the same thing, he knows.

Obi-Wan pulls the Force up and over him and his companions like a shroud, just enough of a suggestion that several stormtroopers abruptly turn and go the other way on their patrols, though he knows this will only protect them for so long. Eventually someone with a bit of a firmer mind that several of these stormtroopers will notice them, or Obi-Wan will have to turn his concentration to something else, and then they’ll have to fight.

They’re halfway to the turbolift to the detention level when the Force _shivers_ and Obi-Wan realizes he’s been wrong this entire time.

_No._

Oh, Force.

He’d been so _certain_ that they’d have time to rescue Cody without much fuss, as long as they got in before the cruiser rendezvoused with the _Executor;_ they’d save Cody from a brutal interrogation by Darth Vader himself and then get away. It wouldn’t be _easy,_ he’d known that, but it’d be simple, at the very least.

The sickening realization of how incredibly _wrong_ he was about all that feels like it’s going to crush him, and the heaviness of the Force suddenly makes sense.

He’s stopped moving, he realizes, and Rex, Kix, and Val are all looking at him, though he’s sure they’d all have different expressions if he were to actually see their faces.

“Rex,” Obi-Wan says, quiet, “you’re going to have to get Cody out on your own.”

Rex shakes his head. “I don’t know what kind of self-sacrificial _bullshit_ you’re up to now, sir, but Cody will never forgive either of us if I let you run off on your own-”

“Vader.”

 _That_ stops Rex in his tracks, although Obi-Wan doesn’t actually know if Rex knows who Vader is - or was, anyway - and the younger man stares at him for a long minute. “Here?” he finally asks.

“I can sense him,” Obi-Wan says, quiet but firm, and Rex swears on a low exhale.

“What does that mean?” Val asks. “What are we going to do?”

Obi-Wan smiles at her, hoping he looks like he’s still steady and serene, although the thought of facing Anakin again- it tears at him. “You’re going to go with Rex and Kix to get Cody,” he tells her. “I’m going to distract Vader, keep him away from you all, and I’ll try to meet you back at the ship when it’s time to go - but if I can’t get there, you have to leave without me, understood?” And it’s Rex he pins with a hard stare at that last instruction.

“General,” Kix says, and Obi-Wan turns to look at the medic, refuses to be swayed. “Be careful, and don’t get yourself killed, alright? Cody’s going to need you.”

“I’ll do my best.” Obi-Wan smiles a little. “I’m afraid you’ll be on your own down there, though. I won’t be able to keep hiding you.”

“We understand,” Rex says, almost gruff, claps Obi-Wan on the shoulder. “We’ll come looking for you if you aren’t back to the ship in time.”

Obi-Wan knows it’ll be futile to argue. So he just inclines his head in a nod and turns away, steps off in the opposite direction and drops the shields concealing his presence, as much as that goes against every ingrained survival instinct he has. (He can almost hear Cody, in the back of his mind, wry and amused, _I didn’t know a survival instinct was something you had, General.)_ For this to work, though, Vader needs to be able to sense him. 

Obi-Wan can pinpoint the moment Vader does, because the heavy dark star of his Force-signature starts moving, is suffused with anger and a whole host of other conflicting feelings, and Obi-Wan allows himself a grim smile, more grateful that his plan is likely going to work than anything else.

It’s been five years since he left Anakin on the lava shores of Mustafar, crying up at him, screaming _I hate you_ into the wind even as the look in his newly-yellow eyes begged for help, for comfort, the way they’d looked when Anakin was young and coming to Obi-Wan late at night, shaking from nightmares, _there’s a monster in me, Master, help me._ A part of him had still instinctively wanted to go to his- his brother, to reassure him, to tell him everything would be alright - but in the end, all he could do was shake his head and walk away _(you were my brother, Anakin! I loved you,_ broken and tired and lost), because he’d known, then, that he couldn’t save Anakin, and at least maybe there’d be a chance for Padme.

He’s seen enough of what Vader’s done, these last five years, to know there’s likely no saving the man who used to be his closest friend, but that knowledge still _aches,_ probably will never stop hurting.

Obi-Wan meets Vader halfway across the cruiser from where the turbolifts are; he walks around a corner strangely free from stormtroopers, though the alarm’s been raised by now (they must all be heading for the detention level, for Rex and Kix and Val, and part of Obi-Wan wishes he’d gone with them, even once they get to Cody that’s still only four of them against the entire complement of stormtroopers on this cruiser, and Cody’s bound to be injured. But if he’d gone with them, then Vader would’ve followed, and the chance of them all still being able to escape would be even less), and sees Vader standing there, black cape fluttering in a breeze Obi-Wan can’t feel. Vader’s saber is in his hand, though he hasn’t ignited it yet, and he looks almost calm and placid standing there. If Obi-Wan hadn’t been able to sense the maelstrom of emotions Vader’s concealing by his stillness, he wouldn’t have thought the man to feel anything at all.

“Obi-Wan,” Vader says, and even the cadence of his voice is all wrong, too deep and nearly stilted. Anakin had never talked like that. “We meet again.”

Obi-Wan pushes back the hood of his robe, says, “Vader,” and ignites his lightsaber, holds it ready in one hand, defensive. He’s here to buy time, nothing more - they’re not on equal terms at the moment anyway, trying to kill Vader here would be… difficult.

“Here to rescue your commander, are you?” Vader asks, and he still hasn’t ignited his own saber, like he’s waiting for something, or maybe like he thinks Obi-Wan won’t attack.

“I certainly couldn’t leave him in your inhospitable hands,” Obi-Wan says. “Gods only know what you’d do to him.”

“Nothing more than I already have, I’m afraid,” Vader says, and Obi-Wan grits his teeth, tries not to imagine Cody strapped to an interrogation chair, a probe droid injecting him with various serums, Vader’s gloved hand over his face, drawing out any information he can. Vader finally turns his saber on, lurid red reflecting off his black suit, and steps forward, lifting the saber up. “Once I have you in my grasp, however, the Emperor will be most pleased. You will tell us everything we need to know about this _rebellion.”_

“I’m afraid you’re mistaken, Vader,” Obi-Wan says, shakes his head. “I don’t intend to be captured, and certainly not by you. Or have you forgotten who won our last duel?”

It hurts, a little, to say that, but Obi-Wan steels himself and says it anyway, light and mocking, and it does the trick - Vader snarls and lunges forward and their sabers cross with a hiss, sparks flying. Vader bears down with all his weight and his superior height and Obi-Wan lets him, for a moment, then slips neatly to the side, putting space between them again.

“Come now, Anakin,” he says, and immediately regrets the slip. It provokes Vader even more, though, and the Sith throws himself across the space separating them, saber flashing, cutting molten gold lines into the walls. There’s too little room, here, the corridor wide enough for two people to walk abreast but not much wider, and that clearly suits Vader’s new fighting style - heavy and ponderous and full of power, as inescapable as a tidal wave.

Obi-Wan misses the freedom a less-enclosed space would give him.

Still, he has plenty of room to duck and dodge and parry the heavy-handed strikes, heart pounding in his chest, hands tight on his saber, backing down the corridor until he has room to turn again, to wait, because even when he’s half-machine Vader will wear himself out eventually.

(Soresu was the first saber form Qui-Gon had ever taught him, as a new padawan: how to keep up a steady defense, never faltering, until a bigger, stronger opponent grows tired and slips, and that’s when you strike, when their guard is down. The secret, Qui-Gon had told him, was staying fluid, constantly moving but moving as little as possible, like water, always being one step to the side of where they think you are, your saber always sliding into place at the last second to block. Obi-Wan had advanced through the more aggressive fighting styles as he grew older, but it’d been the Soresu that’d never failed him, in the end.)

A part of him has to wonder how they got here, where they’d gone wrong, how he’d failed Anakin - it’s a question he’s asked himself many times since Mustafar. He’s never been able to answer it. _What did I do to you, Anakin,_ he’d wondered, late at night when he couldn’t sleep from all the emptiness echoing in his head. _What did I do, that you felt this was the only way you could go?_

Vader locks their sabers together and Obi-Wan lets him, for a moment, looks up into the red transparisteel covering his eyes, the inhuman mask, says, quietly, “You could’ve come back.”

“To who?” Vader almost sounds like he’s laughing, but the Force is seething with his emotions, a mix of anger and pain and maybe even longing, the strength of it all nearly choking Obi-Wan.

 _To me,_ he doesn’t say. _To your wife, to your padawan, to everyone who loved you. We would’ve taken you back._

He shakes his head, instead of speaking, ducks back from the red saber, and it slashes down the outside of his arm, shears off a piece of his robes, nearly catching flesh, and Obi-Wan grits his teeth and gathers the Force around him and _pushes,_ sends Vader stumbling back a meter or two, takes a breath and tries to let the pain and the guilt fade away. (There will be time to think on it all later, when Cody is safe and everything’s gone the kind of quiet you only see in the deepest hours of the night, and maybe then he’ll find the answers he’s been searching for for all these years.)

Vader recovers too fast, advances forward again, deliberate, stalking nearly, saber low at his side, though there’s no way he’s unprepared. “A cheap trick,” he says.

“Have you really forgotten everything I taught you already?” Obi-Wan asks, light, so light, even though it burns. “Your new master must be a poor teacher.”

“My master _cares_ about me,” Vader snarls, and it’s the most Anakin he’s sounded yet as he yanks his saber up and crashes into Obi-Wan with a series of overhanded blows, beating at Obi-Wan’s defenses, forcing him backwards step by step. Anger and betrayal pours out into the Force like a raging inferno, searing Obi-Wan’s lungs with every breath he tries to take, pummeling at him just as the lightsaber is, forcing him further backwards, _away._ “Everything he’s done has been to _help_ me, he’s never abandoned me, not like _you-”_

Obi-Wan steps forwards instead of backwards and slashes his saber up, cutting deep into the suit just to the right of the life support panel, up into the black, bulging mask, and Vader cuts off, lets out a pained cry as the mask cracks and Obi-Wan sends another wave of Force at him, pushing him down the corridor to fall to his knees, saber lost and deactivated on the floor.

Vader looks up at Obi-Wan, one eye just barely visible through the cracks in his mask - there’s a harsh red burn mark across his cheek and he’s got one hand pressed against the tear in his suit and there’s something like fear in his eye. He looks _small,_ broken, too much like the young padawan Obi-Wan remembers-

“I would’ve taken you back,” Obi-Wan snaps, a quiet anger unfolding in his voice, something clenching in his chest. “No matter what you’d done, I would’ve _taken you back,_ I would’ve helped you make it right, I would’ve _forgiven you._ You were my _brother,_ my padawan, and all you had to do was tell me you wanted my help, was _ask._ I was _right there,_ Anakin,” and he doesn’t mean to slip from anger to pain, to grief, but his voice is nearly shaking. “All I wanted to do was help you.”

And the wound _aches_ just like it did the first time, when Obi-Wan realized Anakin wasn’t willing to share his struggles with him, when he realized Anakin didn’t _trust_ him, wanted to reach out to someone, anyone else, because somehow, somewhen, Obi-Wan had failed him, and Anakin had left him. 

Obi-Wan would’ve given up _everything_ for his brother, if Anakin would’ve just let him.

For a minute there’s just silence, thick and echoing with what he’s just said, the weight of it, and he can barely breathe, because the way Vader’s _looking_ at him-

“Obi-Wan,” he rasps, air whining through his broken ventilator, “I-”

Obi-Wan’s comm goes off.

 _“We’ve got Cody back to the ship,”_ it’s Rex, _“If you don’t get your ass back here in two minutes, General, I’m coming to drag you back with me.”_

Obi-Wan hesitates, because for a moment he almost thinks- this is _Anakin,_ here on his knees, staring up at Obi-Wan like maybe he finally understands, like maybe he wants to come home.

_I’ll find you, alright? Trust me._

He’d _promised_ Cody. Cody’s on a ship, right now, just waiting for Obi-Wan to get back to him so they can get him away from this horrible part of his life, and he can’t help both of them, and yet- Here Anakin is, practically asking for help, and-

“I’m sorry, Anakin,” he says, too shaky, “but I made a promise. I’ll come back for you.”

Anakin’s face contorts beneath the helmet, but Obi-Wan turns off his saber and spins on one heel and _runs,_ pulling his hood up even though he knows it’s useless, and he has to thank the Force that he doesn’t see any stormtroopers on his way back to the airlock because he doesn’t know what he’d do.

 _I’m sorry, Anakin,_ he thinks as he runs. _I’m sorry._

But he can’t help wondering if Anakin would even believe him.

  
  


(Vader - though for just a moment he is Anakin, kneeling on the floor before the man he once would’ve trusted with his life with something like tears in his eyes - stares off in the direction his former Master ran, most definitely on his way back to the ship he brought. So they’ve stolen Cody from him, though really the former Marshal Commander had nearly outlived his use, with the chip malfunction. He should rise, go after Obi-Wan; he could make it back to the ship before they detached and took off, he’s sure, stop them, bring in a whole host of traitors, the Emperor would be happy.

But he can’t quite make himself move.

 _You said all I had to do was ask,_ he finds himself thinking, and for a minute he feels small and scared, like he’d been as a boy, when he’d crawled into his mom’s bed after a particularly bad punishment, or when he’d gone to Obi-Wan in the middle of the night after nightmares.

Another voice whispers _my boy, you know he would never have understood. Look how he ran after his clone commander, instead of staying with you. You really think you could’ve trusted him to help you?_

Obi-Wan abandoned him. Back then and now, both times, and no pretty words will ever make that better. They can’t fix what went wrong.

“I don’t need your help, old man,” Vader says to the empty hallway. “I don’t _want_ it.”

And he pushes himself to his feet again, grabs onto the pain of the wound and the anger still festering in his chest and lets the Dark lift him, carry him along with it. Letting his old Jedi Master talk to him had been a weakness, a mistake.

It’s not one he’ll make again.)

  
  


Cody’s still mostly coherent when the blasterfire starts echoing through the detention level, snapping him on alert without him even really thinking about it - it’s been two days, maybe a bit longer, since his dream with Obi-Wan, and he’s been waiting for _some_ kind of signal ever since, because Obi had said he’d find him. He stands up, crosses the cell and presses up against the ray shields, ignoring the way that makes his head _ache_ \- he has a feeling the malfunctioning chip is responsible for at least half of the headache, and the interrogation he’d received yesterday is definitely responsible for the rest of it.

From his limited perspective, he can see as several stormtroopers are shot, crashing into the floor or the walls, and then two achingly familiar figures round the corner in armor he thought he’d never see again - Rex and Kix. _Rex._

(He’d thought Rex was dead, for a long time, because no one could’ve survived that _crash,_ but- clearly he was wrong, and he’s almost never been so grateful.)

Rex makes his way unerringly to Cody’s cell - the third person with them, a Human woman, stays at the corner to cover their escape, and Kix is fiddling with his medpack - and shoots out the ray shield, and Cody stumbles forward. Rex catches him, says, gruff, “Hey, _ori’vod,_ I’ve got you.”

Cody grabs his brother _tight,_ presses their foreheads together even though Rex’s got his bucket on, rasps, _“Gods,_ Rex, I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

Kix murmurs for him to hold still and Cody does, letting the medic inject a quick stim and a painkiller into his neck - he’ll need them both for the fight out of here, he’s sure. “I’ve been looking for you since everything went to shit,” Rex says, and Cody huffs out a rough laugh.

“Not like that, you _di’kut,”_ Cody says, accepts the blaster pistol Rex hands him, even though he’d really rather have a rifle. “I thought you’d died in that crash. Vader spent- a long time looking for it.”

Rex goes quiet, for a minute, but before he can say anything, the woman says, “We’ve got incoming. We better get out of here,” and Rex nods.

“We can talk later,’ he says. “Right now, let’s just focus on getting you out of here.”

Cody’s thankful for the stim as they fight their way back to Rex’s ship - he’s exhausted, firing at stormtroopers and taking cover where he can on autopilot, finds himself grateful that Vader has appeared to have left well enough alone, or kriffed off to wherever it was he came from the first time. Even with the painkiller, too, by the time they make it back to the ship his head is throbbing and his arms feel like lead.

“I need to get that chip out of your head asap,” Kix says as they duck into the airlock - they’d managed to lose the stormtroopers a few turns back, for now, although Cody’s sure more will be coming. 

He shakes his head, then grimaces because _that_ was a mistake. “No, I want to see Obi-Wan first,” he says, because he knows Obi-Wan is here, somewhere. He wouldn’t have sent Rex to do the rescue by himself. Maybe he’s just in the ship, waiting for them so they can leave - it’d be smart to stay in the ship so he doesn’t get recognized, if he’s trying to use the cover of him being dead.

But when he steps into the ship, there’s no sign of Obi-Wan anywhere.

“He’s here, right?” Cody asks, hates that he almost sounds _small._

Rex talks quietly into his comm, then looks up, smiling a little, though it seems like it’s an effort. “Yeah, _vod,_ he’s here. He should be on his way back to the ship now.”

Kix tries to coax Cody over to the tiny medbay (one bunk, a bacta tank, and some shelves, and that’s about it), but Cody refuses, stands in the middle of the room and holds himself still, tries not to pace. A horrible thought occurs to him and he spins, says, “He’s fighting Vader, isn’t he.” It’d only make sense - Vader’s still on the cruiser, after all, they haven’t met up with the _Executor_ yet, and with Obi-Wan not in the ship or in the detention level for the rescue…

Rex sighs and rubs at his face and that’s all the confirmation Cody needs. “He’s going to get himself _killed,”_ he snaps. They have to go get him, Obi-Wan’s going to need the help, and-

“Your complete faith in me is always so refreshing,” a light, Coruscanti voice says, and Cody whips around so fast he’s dizzy. “Rex, let Cena know we’re good to take off, would you?”

Cody’s frozen, rooted to the spot, almost unable to breathe. His General looks almost the same as he had in the dream he’d had, a couple nights before, except maybe more worn, more tired, and there’s something bright and pained in his eyes, but when he meets Cody’s gaze he smiles. “Hello, Cody,” he says, gentle, and Cody feels like he’s going to fall apart.

 _“Obi-Wan,”_ he chokes out, and then his _cyare_ is there, holding him tight, and Cody wraps his arms around Obi-Wan’s chest and tugs him against Cody where he belongs.

For the first time since he’d woken up to see a Jedi staring down at him, trapped in a fallen building, he finds himself relaxing.

“I waited for you,” he says, pulling back just enough to see Obi-Wan’s face, and his Jedi smiles at him, some of the pain in his eyes fading, though Cody knows they’ll have to talk about whatever happened to hurt him like that. He reaches up with one hand to cup Obi-Wan’s cheek and Obi leans into the touch. “Just like I said I would.”

“And I found you,” Obi-Wan says, touches Cody’s scar so lightly he almost thinks he’s imagining it, except he’s not, because this is _real,_ not even a dream. Cody presses his forehead against Obi-Wan’s and closes his eyes, lets the feeling of his Jedi in his arms soothe the last of the ache in his heart. (He’d betrayed his Jedi, but now he can make that right again.)

For a long moment they just stand there, then Obi-Wan sighs and says, “Cody, you should let Kix look at you.”

Cody grumbles a little - he wants to stay and hold Obi and find out what his _cyare’s_ been up to, these past years when Cody’s been little more than a mindless cog in the Imperial machine - but only halfheartedly, because he knows Obi-Wan will worry until he lets Kix look at him, and Kix will probably threaten to sedate him. Besides, he _hurts,_ from injuries and interrogation, and sitting down seems like a good idea.

So he lets Obi-Wan walk him into the little medbay, and Kix comes over to look him over. He tells Cody he has a concussion, some cracked ribs, and that he needs to take the chip out now. “The sooner you let me,” Kix tells him, “the sooner you’ll be awake again.”

Cody frowns. “I’d like some time to catch up with Obi-Wan first, Kix,” he says, and the medic narrows his eyes, though he’s still calm. Cody can’t give in, though - part of him is afraid that if he lets Kix knock him out, when he wakes up Obi-Wan will be gone and all of this will have been some kind of cruel dream. That’s not how things work, he _knows_ that, but after how real his last dream with Obi-Wan had felt… 

It ends up being Obi-Wan who makes the decision. “I’ll be here when you wake up, Cody,” he says, soft, motions to a fold-out chair near the bunk, and Cody wonders again at how well his Jedi knows him. 

“Alright,” Cody agrees, reluctantly, and he lays down on the bunk, and Obi-Wan sits in the chair, and they’re holding hands when the sedative Kix injects him with takes effect.

When Cody wakes up, the pain is gone, and he can breathe without his ribs complaining, and he immediately knows Obi-Wan spent the time Cody was unconscious doing Force healing. Obi-Wan is still holding his hand, and when Cody opens his eyes and looks over at him, he smiles.

“Hello there,” he says, nearly teasing, and Cody finds himself laughing.

“You’re still here,” he says, tries not to sound too disbelieving. “Gods, I thought- I’m _out.”_ He’s away from Vader, from the Empire, from the Inquisitors, the chip is gone. He’s _free._ It almost feels too good to be true.

“I’m still here,” Obi-Wan agrees, grinning down at him, and Cody pushes himself to sit up, carefully. “I told you I would be, didn’t I?”

“I know you did.” Cody looks around, sees that they’ve been left alone for now - he’s sure Rex will just be waiting to be able to talk to him, and he does want to see his brother, but for now he relishes the quiet. Obi-Wan gets up from the chair and comes over to sit next to Cody on the bunk, and Cody slings an arm around his shoulders, tugs his Jedi against his side. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too, so much,” Obi-Wan says, soft, and there’s a tiny shiver in his voice, so Cody reaches up with his free hand to rub his thumb over Obi-Wan’s cheek. “I’m so sorry it took me so long to find you, love.”

“Hey, don’t say that, it’s okay,” Cody says, leans forward to press a gentle kiss to Obi-Wan’s mouth, smiling a little when he can feel his _cyare_ relax into the gesture. “It’s not your fault. Although we do need to talk about whatever happened between you and Vader on the cruiser.”

“Later,” Obi-Wan says, firmly, “though I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised you can tell something happened.” The Jedi still looks too tired, but he’s smiling now, relaxing into Cody’s side, and that’s good, at least. Too much has clearly happened to him, since Utapau, and Cody isn’t sure if he’s totally up to the task, but he knows his Jedi needs _someone_ to help him, and without Skywalker, well, that responsibility falls to Cody himself. “I have a surprise waiting for you when we get home.”

_Home._

Cody can’t help a grin, and he taps Obi-Wan’s nose, playfully, says, “And just where would home be?”

“Alderaan.” Obi-Wan snorts - Cody must have some kind of look on his face, but _really,_ Alderaan? A Core World, known for its dislike of the Empire - there has to be a better place. Maybe somewhere in the Outer Rim where the Empire’s grasp is weak, where it’s easy to disappear. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. Bail is very careful about being extremely compliant with the Empire. Everyone _knows_ he’s involved with rebels, but there’s no proof, even the Senate has agreed with that. Without the approval of the Senate, the Emperor can’t instigate anything… at least, not yet.” Obi-Wan’s face darkens a little, but he shakes himself, adds, “There’s two people I need you to meet.”

Really, that could mean anything, and Cody frowns a little, thoughtful. Two Jedi, maybe? That wouldn’t really make sense, and he rather thinks it’d be a bad idea to have more than one Jedi in the same place. Maybe it’s more of his brothers. “Who?” he asks, curiously.

“It wouldn’t be much of a surprise if I told you.” Obi-Wan smiles at him, perfectly serene, though his eyes are dancing. “Rex has been waiting to see you, I’ll let him in now. I need to talk to Cena anyway.” Cena must be the pilot - Cody remembers Obi-Wan mentioning her name briefly before. “We aren’t far out now.”

Cody drags him in for a kiss before he lets Obi-Wan leave, and he’s pleased to see the slight flush on his Jedi’s cheeks as he stands and leaves the little medbay.

He and Rex talk for a while, and there’s a lot of hugs - Cody teases Rex about the _dead animal_ on his face (otherwise known as a beard, but really, how could he compare Obi-Wan’s excellent, attractive beard to the scruff on Rex’s chin? It’s an insult), and Rex punches his shoulder, and it all just feels so familiar that Cody can’t wipe the grin off his face. 

It feels like too soon when Cena comes over the intercom to let them know they’re landing - at a base, apparently, and Rex hugs Cody hard and promises he’ll come visit, and then Obi-Wan is leading Cody to a small shuttle. “I use this to bypass the Imperial ships in orbit,” he explains, and Cody nods, listens as Obi-Wan explains the scrambler. It’s a good setup, and he tells Obi-Wan as much.

It’s a quiet flight down to the small landing pad hidden in the trees - Alderaan is a beautiful planet, from what Cody can see, mountains and forests and wide, sprawling plains; Obi-Wan’s cabin is up in the mountains, fairly remote but still close enough to the capital to make a day trip there.

There’s a speeder waiting outside the cabin when they arrive, and Obi-Wan is smiling, too pleased with himself, so this must be the surprise - and then he opens the door and two young voices cheer, “Uncle Ben!” and Cody can’t help but stare.

There’s a young blond boy with bright blue eyes and a girl with dark hair up in two braided buns, cheering and latching onto Obi-Wan, who’s dropped down to his knees to hug them - he calls them Luke and Leia and it takes Cody a moment to see the resemblance, but once he does it hits _hard._ There’d been rumors going around for a long time that Skywalker and Amidala were involved, but _kids?_

“Luke, Leia,” Obi-Wan says, smiling down at the kids, and Cody can’t help smiling too, chest warming, because his Jedi looks so _happy_ and at ease with them, “this is your Uncle Cody.”

“Hi,” Leia says, after a minute, studying him, and Cody steps the rest of the way into the cabin (and part of him recognizes it, vaguely, and he thinks of snatches of half-remembered dreams and knows why) and kneels down in front of her, next to his Jedi.

 _Home,_ Obi-Wan had said.

Cody thinks there’s no better place in the galaxy.

**Author's Note:**

> MANDO'A:
> 
> cyare: beloved  
> ori'vod: older brother, best friend  
> vod: brother


End file.
